Twelve inch to the foot dinghy

[Bedford]

Yes the leather will have to be sealed with dubbin polish and greased with something. The plans call for leathering both yokes, the gaff because it slides up and down the mast and the boom because it's height is set by the tension between the luff and a downhaul that circles the mast to a thumb cleat below the boom on the fore face of the mast. With the boom moving up and down with the setting of the sail it's more convenient to leather the yoke than the mast.

[Mark Pearse]

that's looking very nice

[Bedford]

A little more progress on the spars, both yokes are leathered now and some rigging done, I've even had time to make a boat hook out of left over spruce.

 

[Mark Pearse]

g'day bedford

 

looks lovely - how do the sails fix to the spars in this boat?

[Bedford]

Mark the tack and clew are made off to each end of the boom leaving the foot free while the head is secured along the full length of the gaff.

In the pic above you can see the two empty holes in the gaff yoke and there is a hole through the other end of the spar to tie it off to, the boom is the same.

[Bedford]

Finally she's a sail boat, almost, still fine tuning to do and buoyancy to organise. 

 

It's getting crowded on the centre board case

 

[Bedford]

I still haven't found buoyancy that I'm happy with but I reckon since I'll be sailing her single handed most of the time I'll need a third hand, a way of holding the tiller for a few minutes now and then.

I milled a piece of scrap brass left over from turning another part to make up a sliding jamb, I'll run a line across the boat via the tiller "lock" 

 

The mill in the first pic is 10mm diam with a 2mm external radius, I used it for the edges of the brass and the fair leads in the though block

Simple 3 piece brass assy and you can see the fair lead in the right hand block

Fitted to the tiller, I mounted it on the boat and it seems to work well, the only concern is that the wedge may slide back accidentally causing friction while steering but if that happens I'll slip a couple of magnets into the woodwork to hold it in place.

[wefalck]

Nice idea. In the old days they seem to have used simple pin in the end of the tiller, around which a rope/the running end of the tackle to support the tiller was laid. Doesn't get the device in the way, when holding the tiller normally, i.e. without the outrigger ?

Edited February 6, 2019 by wefalck

[Bedford]

The tiller is large enough that used with the outrigger stowed my hand will rest over the top and sides without really touching the device.

[michael mott]

Now I'm guessing that this might be too big of a coincidence to be different boats Steve

 

 

Looks like MSW is way ahead of  Wooden Boat Magazine in the information department about this beauty.

Your boat is absolutely gorgeous Steve.

 

Michael

 

 

Edited March 4, 2019 by michael mott
picture order

[Bedford]

Nice pick up Michael, indeed, guilty as charged.

 

Thanks for the compliment Michael, I take that as high praise given the source.

 

I formed a friendship online with one of the guys from Wooden Boat Magazine and he told me to make sure I submitted Miss Caroline to "launchings" so now a Facebook encounter with a bloke in America has lead to a boat built in Sydney Australia being published in a magazine from Brooklin Maine and seen by a bloke in Edmonton Canada. Small world isn't it!

 

On another note I've bought my Torqeedo outboard and it's working really well but how to tie an ultra modern motor in with a classic wooden boat?

Well Michael may remember a piece of river red gum I used for the base of my schooner build, I said the timber was so beautiful there was no need for fancy shaping, well I realised I hadn't used any of that wood in my boat so I made the extended tiller handle from it and some left over sitka spruce. I think it ties in very nicely. 

 

Milling the red gum for the tiller head

I reckon that looks pretty damn good

While I'm proud to have this sticker I'm not sure I want to apply it to the transom

Edited March 5, 2019 by Bedford

[wefalck]

Maybe chrome-plating or spraying of the engine would give it a more 'contemporary' look ...

[Bedford]

Well folks, finally I have sailed Miss Caroline!

I took her to Canberra last weekend and put her in Lake Ginninderra. I had my sons girlfriend at the helm for a while and my son took the pics.

I grant you I need to learn about sail trim but I got her out, about and back. The last pic shows a catamaran, they got there before me but I was rigged, launched and sailing before them and sailed much better than they did but I'd say they were first timers too. I thank youtube and a good understanding of the physics for my better performance!

The pics with the motor down are because I forgot to lift it! Lesson learned - be methodical.

 

[Mark Pearse]

thanks for sharing the photos, she's beautiful, & it's a good looking rig too

 

 

[Bedford]

Thanks Mark, the Gunter sloop rig was chosen for it's ability to windward and aesthetics, it just looks right. Having said that I realise it's harder to sail single handed but I'm finding or inventing ways to simplify it.

One thing I found straight away is that by holding the main sheet you can feel when it's pulling well, you don't need to look at it much. The jib on the other hand will require some learning.

There were two old dears out there for a picnic, both in there 80's and the used to sail a lot when younger. They took a keen interest in Miss Caroline and watched me sail her. They gave me a few pointers when I got back.

[Bedford]

When I met Mark Pearse recently I mentioned that I might do this as a model, he was pretty keen that I should so here it is

 

 

[Bedford]

Just for fun, this pic was taken from another boat at the Boats Afloat festival at Narooma. It's the first time I've seen the boat motoring, my son and his girlfriend are the crew and interestingly with them in the boat she went faster than ever before. previous full throttle was 6.3 knots but with the extra weight distributed evenly she made 7.4 knots! 

 

[Bedford]

I've been using a rowing mirror supported on a "Tablet stand" with a flex neck and clamp base. Effective but wobbly and ugly.

Now with all this time on my hands I've made a much nicer replacement using the same mirror and tablet cradle and retaining the ball joint from the original. I was able to cut the ball joint from the flex shaft, centre drill it and turn a 5mm diameter nut to go into a pre-existing lateral hole in the ball. I cross drilled and tapped the nut to 3mm then turned a screw and washer to attach it all to the new spruce post which sits in the inwhale spaces so I can move it to wherever I want it.

 

 

Edited April 12, 2020 by Bedford

[wefalck]

I gather I am not much of a rower, but it makes perfect sense. Never seen such thing before. I suppose I would have turned to one of those clip-on mirrors some determined cyclists use.

 

Nice 'keeping-with-the-style' solution.

[shipman]

Superb. I'm full of envy. Happy sailing.

[Mark Pearse]

Hi Steve

 

That's very neat work. I've been rowing quite bit myself in the last couple of weeks, it being still permissible & fun. 

 

How high is the mirror compared to eye height?

[Bedford]

Hi Mark

 

Yeah I've wanted to get some rowing in but I've got a bit of work to do on the transom first so about a week before I can.

 

The mirror is right about eye level so is easy to look at and gives really good coverage. What are you rowing?

If you want any details on the mirror etc get in touch, I think you've got my number.

[Mark Pearse]

Hi Steve, I have a copy of the 'Fisher Skiff' - built in 1947 by an elderly Billy Fisher (the Putney one), who learned his shipwright craft in the 1880s & 90s. The original is thought to be close to Sydney waterman's skiffs of the 19C. She's dishier than Rosie, shallower & flatter - the drawings below show it well. 

 

I'm still wondering about a mirror: the benefits of enforced neck mobility aren't all bad.

 

best wishes

 

  

[Keith Black]

Sorry, I'm way late to this party, just discovered this gem today. Steve, your workmanship is gorgeous and the lines of Miss Caroline are beautiful.

Back when I still had my physical capabilities I rowed at least once almost every week. Rowing is a lot like life, the view is always where you've been (the past) the future is somewhere up ahead on a course you hopefully have correctly plotted. A mirror (your's is as beautiful a row boat mirror as I've ever seen) is like trying to see into the future. Take a second, hold one oar out of the water and get a half circle view of where you think you're headed. Of course if you continue with one oar up you'll wind up going in circles, another one of life's moments we all find ourselves doing from time to time. 

Steve, thank you for the memories, God bless your journey.......Keith

[Bedford]

Mark that looks like a very nice little row boat, very enjoyable I'd imagine and the neck flexibility, while you still have it, does semi negate the mirror but my neck got too stiff years ago.

 

Keith, very eloquent analogy of rowing and life. At the moment it definitely feels like we've only got one oar and it's called corona! Thanks for your compliments on my little boat and I'm happy it gave you good memories, that is after all the reason we build these things.

[Bedford]

I've made a few more improvements, this time to the rigging I was never happy with the single line reefing system because it was hard to get good tension at the clew and it meant standing up to move the reefing hooks up to the second reefing line if required. Not a great idea in a small round bilged boat when the wind picks up. 

 

First I made what I'll refer to as a sheave cassette to go into the boom in way of the yoke, this allowed the single sheave to be replaced by 2 that allow permanent attachment of both luff reefing downhauls. By clamping the boom to a bench and building a bridge table over it I could attach fences so the router cut exactly where I needed to accept the cassette after first routing out the previous single sheave hole and epoxying a spruce plug in.

 

This is the underside of the boom

 

[Bedford]

The next job was to rout out and plug the clew reefing sheave hole then rout the sides of the boom to accept reefing combs for which I turned another two sheaves. I then routed another sheave hole further aft so the original reefing sheave could be reused as part of an outhaul for the foot of the sail which it did not previously have.

 

I've yet to use the reefing system while under way but it now has 4 separate downhauls, one each for the first and second luff reefs and the same for the leech reefs, these downhauls are led through fairleads on the boom with eye splices in the ends that simply get pulled to thumb cleats over which they are placed to secure the reef. It sounds and looks complicated but it's actually dead simple and importantly very quick to apply

 

[wefalck]

Excellent workmanship ! And, if this is still possible, I am growing more and more envious of you having such a nice boat ...

[shipman]

Just found this excellent thread......what a FABULOUS boat! Respect. Thanks for posting.

[Old Collingwood]

OK!  lets get this into perspective  -  we build  our models in our forum  we all  use our skills and turn out some Amazing work, But, this is on another level  with this level of skill on a full size  media  - Amazing.

 

OC.